Wine under attack

Over the past few days a turkey shoot appears to be going on, a concerted attack from different directions against a single target: quality wine. It began, I hope unintentionally, with the Ministry for Agricultural when it made public its latest plan to use Common Market Organization (CMO) funds, those which in the past were of key importance for Italian wine exports. Their new idea is to use these funds for projects aimed at non-European Union countries that are currently not importing Italian wine. In other words, even though the markets of the United States and Canada, traditional importers of Italian wines, are on the up-and-up, with a 13.6% increase of Italian wine exports to the US alone, rather than striking when the iron is hot, their ‘political vision’ is to try and go elsewhere, it doesn’t seem to matter where. The next assault came when the EU came out with details of its ’simplification’ project for the wine sector that many are convinced, especially the European Federation of Origin Wines (EFOW), will drive the final nail into the coffin for the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) system. And this without even a mandate from the European Parliament to do so. Fortunately, EFOW’s president is now Bernard Farges, a Frenchman, and no longer Riccardo Ricci Curbastro, an Italian, otherwise its position would be seen as something Italian and nothing more. The latest broadside, which to the Città del Vino (City of Wine) Association believes could also create problems for the PDO system, is a plan to merge townships in Italy in order to reduce local government spending. If just one of these projects creates such problems, just imagine what would happen if all three became a reality. One thing is for sure, if, as Italian Premier Matteo Renzi says, wine is an example of Italian excellence, logic would dictate that none of this should be allowed to happen.